Read Online Ghost Cave by Barbara Steiner - Free Book Online Page A

soon. He was probably sweaty from riding his bike.
    They had walked about a city block when they came to Eddie, who was stopped before them. He had squatted down and was nibbling on a Baby Ruth bar.
    â€œJumpin’ Jehoshaphat!” said Hermie. They shined their lights on the wall. Sheets of water had formed rippled and folded flowstone. A couple of stalactites had come all the way down to meet stalagmites on the floor, forming slender columns.
    â€œNot bad,” said Eddie, “but I’ve seen better. Which way do you want to go?” One pathway headed downhill, another continued straight ahead.
    â€œYou choose, Hermie,” Marc suggested. “We’ll stay together.”
    â€œHow will we know how to get back to the opening, if we wander around in here?” Hermie wanted to be sure they got out.
    â€œI’m making a map.” Eddie showed Hermie a scrap of paper and a stub of pencil he carried in his pocket. He had made a Y and sketched in the two columns and the flow-stone. “You need to remember to turn and look back occasionally, too. Things look different from the other side.”
    Marc had a good sense of direction. He hardly ever bothered writing anything down. But he did take careful note of everything he saw on the walls, weird rocks, bumps along the path, formations.
    â€œThat way.” Hermie pointed straight ahead. “It’s bigger.”
    â€œMight be a pretty good cave,” Eddie said, before they went the way Hermie had chosen.
    â€œI can hear water dripping,” Marc said. “At least it’s a live cave.”
    â€œAre there dead caves?” Hermie asked, a funny hitch in his voice.
    Marc laughed. “A dead cave is dry. Live caves have water dripping or running into them, and formations are still growing.”
    â€œI got a book and read it after going to the dentist yesterday,” Hermie said. “I thought there’d be more stalactites and stalagmites. And some crystals and those neat soda straw things.”
    â€œThey only put the best caves in books, Hermie.” Eddie stuffed his candy wrapper back into his pack. “You probably won’t see all that fancy stuff down here. That flowstone may be the best formation in here.”
    The cave had more piled rock than Marc had ever seen. There were loads of huge boulders stacked on each other. The path Hermie had chosen came to a dead end almost immediately. There wasn’t even the promise of a crawl space. The ceiling lowered. Eddie got down and waddled to the end of the passageway.
    â€œNothing,” he reported when he wiggled out.
    They retraced their steps and took the other tunnel. Soon it slid steeply downhill, narrowed, and the ceiling lowered again.
    â€œHorse pucky,” Eddie complained. “Two paths leading to zero.”
    â€œThen we have to go back home,” said Hermie, his voice hopeful.
    â€œLet’s be sure.” Marc shined his light up and down both walls while Eddie belly flopped and scrambled into the end of the tunnel they were in.
    Eddie never hesitated to crawl into the narrow spaces. Marc envied his daring; he was always nervous when he had to crawl into or through a tight spot. He’d been spelunking long enough to know he probably would never get over that tiny fear. So he forced himself to push it back and keep going. He trusted his dad, though, and that helped. Now he was with Hermie, who had never been caving before, and Eddie, who seemed to have no fear. From other times they’d gone together, Marc knew Eddie was sometimes reckless. He felt it paid to be cautious underground.
    â€œLook, Marc! Up there.” Eddie pointed to a spot near the ceiling of the cave. “Boost me up. I think there’s an opening behind that huge boulder.”
    Marc’s heart pounded. He could see what Eddie had spotted. He shined his light and examined the ledge, but he couldn’t tell from the ground if it was a tunnel. Giving